STAND. COM. REP. NO.  664

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

 

RE:   H.B. No. 527

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 527 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TOBACCO,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to protect public health especially the health of our children by prohibiting the distribution and sale of flavored tobacco products.

 

     The American Cancer Society, Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii, American Heart Association, and several concerned individuals supported this bill.  R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company opposed this measure.

 

     Your Committee has amended this bill by:

 

(1)  Requiring the Department of the Attorney General to provide annual reports until 2010 on the sale of flavored tobacco products;

 

(2)  Adding provisions that ban cigarette sales from self-service displays;

 

(3)  Banning smoking on public beaches and in public parks;

 

(4)  Changing the effective date to January 1, 2010; and

 

(5)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for clarity, consistency, and style.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 527, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 527, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

JOSHUA B. GREEN, M.D., Chair